


My Homeland (My Heart Is Here)

by blackorchids



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Aromantic, Aromantic Character, Asexuality, Asexuality Spectrum, Character Study, Family Feels, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Plans For The Future, Post-Canon, Sequel-What-Sequel, Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, ace/aro, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28663815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackorchids/pseuds/blackorchids
Summary: Anna is pregnant, and Elsa has some thoughts.
Relationships: Anna & Elsa (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: Gen and Aro Prompts (Any fandom)





	My Homeland (My Heart Is Here)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GallifreyanFairytale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [GallifreyanFairytale](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale) in the [GenAndAroPrompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/GenAndAroPrompts) collection. 



> **Prompt:**   
>  _Anything with aromantic Elsa. Maybe people are pressuring her to find a husband, and she finally goes to Anna and confesses she doesn't want a romantic relationship? Or a modern day fic with Elsa coming out? Or any other idea you come up with, I'm not really picky._
> 
> Title from Celtic Woman's song Homeland! This is a prompt that I claimed uhhhhhhh more than two years ago and randomly felt like filling tonight. I have no excuses.

Embarrassingly, Olaf is the first to know. While she is very conscious that she will not deserve a _third_ chance if she suddenly shuts Anna out too long again, Elsa spends every second that is not sleeping working tirelessly to strengthen her kingdom and improve her relationship with her peoples.

Elsa rises before dawn to go down to the markets and speak to the merchants, giving travelers and traders her blessings and a few spare coins for their purses, visiting midwives and making sure their supplies are clean and plentiful, learning about pubs and cottages that will need assistance from the crown to renovate and expand.

She talks to orphans and school marms and monks and clerics, listens to their problems and concerns, learns about her kingdom in a way she hadn’t been able to do when she was confined to her bedroom, terrified of her powers. They do not trust her yet, but that is her own wrong to right, and she will spend the rest of her life being honored for the opportunity to make amends.

The children don’t fear her the way the adults do, and she entertains them with little whimsies, watches their eyes grow round as she creates flowers from ice and snowballs that don’t melt. She lets them call her by her name, and the first time one of the village children hugs her, she gets a little choked up.

Most days, Elsa does not get to bed until the moon is high in the sky, and Anna knows this. Anna understands her desperation to redeem herself in a way that Elsa cannot imagine anyone else ever would. Now that Elsa is _trying_ , Anna extends endless cheerful pardons when Elsa is late to a meal or forgets about a scheduled walk in the park. 

Elsa wants nothing more than to be worthy of Anna’s repeated forgiveness, spends any free moment she has getting to know her sister who is now an _adult_ , and the man her sister has married.

Still, Olaf knows first, and it is yet another thing that Elsa will spend her whole life regretting.

“A _baby_!” He coos, dancing around on his stumpy little legs, turning it into a rhyme. Anna is grinning, flushed and happy, and Kristoff cannot seem to keep his eyes off of her, and Elsa swallows down something like panic so that she can hug her sister.

“This is amazing,” She says, and Anna hugs her back, letting out a little relieved breath into Elsa’s neck. “I am so excited for you—for the _both_ of you!”

Kristoff puts up with Anna dragging him into the hug, his low, reluctant laugh rumbling in Elsa’s ear as he scoops the pair of them up in his huge arms.

“We’ve only just found out,” Anna tells her later, when they are sharing a rare full meal together. Elsa had watched her and Kristoff share a very dramatic goodbye kiss before Anna pushed him out of the room, citing a sister-dinner, and siccing Olaf on him and Sven for good measure.

Elsa didn’t realize this was something she had been worrying about, but she feels a little better knowing that this was not something the rest of her little family have been sharing without her. They discuss traveling to tell the rock trolls the good news, and Anna gushes about nursery ideas and baby names, and how much she loves her husband.

She talks about Kristoff with so much affection and joy, about how excited she is to have his baby and Elsa feels tension race up her spine, and suddenly her goblet of wine is iced over.

Anna does not notice, and a little bit of deep breathing allows her to let go long enough that it thaws, and she tries to get out of her head a little so that she can enjoy this time with her sister, whom she loves more than anything or anyone.

It mostly works.

News of Anna’s pregnancy sweeps the kingdom, and it seems to warm the lands in a way that breaking the curse didn’t manage. When Anna accompanies her, villagers and courtiers alike want to offer their blessings and little scraps of embroidery and the occasional carved token of luck. Soon after, as Anna’s stomach grows round and new gowns are sewn, many other women in the kingdom also begin to announce their pregnancies.

Elsa works hard to make sure all of the new mothers in the kingdom will have the supplies needed for their children—commissions dozens of hand-carved bassinets, implores traders to bring back swathes of soft dyed cottons for quilts and tiny little tunics to be made.

Preparations are made for the population surplus, and for the women who will be off their feet in the autumn, and food stores are counted and strictly inventoried for the winter. Around town, people begin to smile at Elsa, genuinely welcoming for the first time that she can remember.

The traders have brought back so much fabric, encouraged by the hefty payments from the crown, and children run around in new trousers and dresses, laughing and squealing in the streets and the fields alike. Anna is glowing, even more so when Kristoff reveals the crib he has carved himself, a glistening, forever-frozen mobile twinkling above it from Elsa.

The kingdom is happier than Elsa can remember, so of course it means that Elsa’s few advisors are dissatisfied.

“Of course we are thrilled with the news of Princess Anna’s blessing,” one of them croons when she finally deigns to attend a meeting.

“However, the question of succession has been raised,” Continues the second, his over-large mustache trembling as he over-enunciates.

“By who?” Elsa asks, imperious in a way she has had to learn. The third man snaps his mouth closed, unwilling to interrupt, even as they sit across from her, making polite inquiries about her plans of reproduction.

“A strong kingdom is only as strong as the royal line,” simpers the first man, speaking in a way that suggests he believes her both incompetent and unintelligent.

“There are several kingdoms with second sons—” begins the third, finally, flipping through several sheets of parchment. Elsa assumes these are covered in lists of prospective husbands: royal, yet without their own kingdoms. She is not a stranger to this idea, though it has been admittedly forgotten since her struggles with her power and her parents’ untimely deaths.

“I believe we should focus on Princess Anna’s condition at this time,” Elsa says as calmly as she can manage, keeping her uncovered palms pressed against the surface of the table and forcing her breathing to remain steady. “The both of us cannot be indisposed to travel at once.”

The three of them exchange looks, sour expressions twisting their mouths at once. She is right, of course, even if her reasoning feels like grasping at straws.

At dinner, Kristoff talks of searching for a new blanket-coat for Sven, and Olaf performs a warbling song that is actually an entreaty that they name the baby after him, and Anna notices that Elsa is trembling. It is the earliest she retires to bed in _years_ , and she is staring at the path of light the moon treks across her floor when Anna slips into the room and clambers into bed beside her, ungainly and awkward in her movements as she favors her enormous belly.

“How was your meeting?” she asks, with an uncanny ability to get straight to the problem.

“They have decided it’s time I start thinking about children of my own,” Elsa tells her, staring at the ceiling and allowing Anna to tangle their fingers together.

Anna sighs a little, and Elsa has to look at her sister, kooky and fun-loving and about to be a _mom_. Anna has never once been reluctant about this new path she’s taken, has been excited and eager and thrilled to play with the village children and call it practice.

And Elsa has never had that instinct, sure, but more notable is the fact that she has no interest in finding someone to be to her what Kristoff is to Anna. 

“You don’t want to go over the list of prospective husbands,” Anna says, quiet. They stare at each other. “Or wives.” It’s a whisper.

She hasn’t said it, but hearing Anna say it is almost the same. The tension that has been at her shoulders, the anxiety sitting behind her lungs—it’s gone, for the first time since learning of Anna’s child. Since before that, even.

She feels almost jubilant, having someone else know. Elsa has no more secrets, now. “Olaf Junior will have to be the next ruler of Arendelle,” Elsa says, and Anna gasps, choking on her laughter.

“Married to Arendelle,” Anna muses, and the sentiment fills Elsa with such peace. Just her and her family and her kingdom, and it’s enough. More than enough, even. These are things she did not expect to be able to have, when she first began to struggle with her powers. Anna shuffles around on the bed, trying to get comfortable, staying with Elsa without asking.

“Married to Arendelle,” Elsa repeats, mostly for herself, so she can have the pleasure of saying it aloud for the first time. They fall asleep holding hands, heartbeats steady.

**Author's Note:**

> this is kind of rambly and introspective?? i'm [here](http://www.rosalinesbenvolio.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


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